Tippy D'Auria

WSP Founder

 

 

 

"The Winter Star Party - If You Build It, They Will Come - A 25 Year Retrospect"

 

Tippy D'Auria is the founder of the Winter Star Party which is sponsored by the Southern Cross Astronomical Society, and he has been the Chairman of that star party for thirteen of its twenty-four years.  Tippy is also a founding board member of Astronomy Outreach network and an advisor for the Meade 4M Community.

In January 2001, Tippy received recognition for his contributions to amateur astronomy, as he was honored by the International Astronomical Union, when an asteroid was given the name "11378 DAuria" in his honor.  That same year, Tippy led an expedition to the volcanoes of Costa Rica, to film a National Geographic documentary called "Volcano Hunters".

Tippy joined an elite group of some of the world's best planetary astronomers in 2001 on a mission to record a predicted flash on the Mars in a region called Edom.

In August 2007, Tippy received the 2007 Astronomical League Award for his many contributions to the Astronomical Community.
 
In February 2008, Tippy received an Astronomy Outreach Award – in recognition for his contributions in outreach and public education in Astronomy.

He is a noted astrophotographer who uses cold camera photography for his work and has taught Creative Photography at the college level. Tippy is a writer and an international lecturer as well as an avid volcano hunter.  He has contributed to the section on darkroom techniques for the book Introduction to Observing and Photographing the Solar System as well as co-authoring with Vic Menard, the definite book on telescope collimation, titled Perspectives on Collimation - Principles and Procedures.

Tippy's  Astronomical Vitae

 

 

 

Tim Khan

WSP Director

Imaging Panel Instructor

 

 

 

 

Taimur (Tim) Khan, P.E. – Vice President, Southern Cross Astronomical Society / Winter Star Party Director & WSP Speaker Coordinator

Mr. Khan was born and raised in South Florida and has had a passion for astronomy since first being introduce to a telescope in his mid teens. His educational background includes a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Miami. He is a licensed Structural Engineer in the State of Florida and is an active member in the following professional organizations: Structural Engineering Certification Board, Florida Structural Engineer’s Association, Structural Engineer Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers and American Concrete Institute. Mr. Khan is currently vice president of a family owned engineering firm in Miami, Florida, where he has specialized in structural engineering ranging from large high-rise construction and large scale custom homes, commercial projects, Schools, and tract homes. Mr. Khan carries his astronomy knowledge into his professional career by advocating proper lighting techniques to his clients. In addition, Mr. Khan has designed and constructed a hurricane resistant roll off roof observatory to resist both hurricanes and tornadic winds.

During his stay at University of Miami in the mid 90’s, Mr. Khan became President of the University of Miami Astronomy Club as well as an active member of the Southern Cross Astronomical Society.  Mr. Khan has been serving as an officer and board member of Southern Cross for several years, and has been appointed director of the prestigious annual Winter Star Party, held annually in the Florida Keys during February.

Currently, Mr. Khan enjoys heading out to dark skies to observe and photograph the night sky. He has been an active astro-photographer since the mid 1990’s, shooting with both film and CCD cameras.

 

Donald C. Parker, M.D.

 

Don Parker, a retired physician from Coral Gables, Florida has had a life-long interest in astronomy and, since 1953, has built a number of telescopes ranging in diameter from three to sixteen inches. Over the years Dr. Parker came to specialize in Solar System research and planetary photography. He has taken over 20,000 photographs and electronic images of Mars and Jupiter, as support for professional astronomers at NASA, JPL, and various observatories.
As a Mars Recorder for the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, Dr. Parker has  done extensive research on the climate and meteorology of the planet Mars. He has authored or co-authored over 150 papers on the Solar System and on planetary photography. These have been pub­lished in both amateur and profession­al journals, such as Science, Nature, Icarus, the Astronomical Journal, and the Journal of Geophysical Research. Parker’s photographs and electronic images of the planets have appeared in numerous books and magazines throughout the world, including Encyclopedia Britannica’s 1996 Science and the Future. He is co-author of the book, Introduction to Observing and Photographing the Solar System.

He is a member of many professional and amateur astronomical organizations, including Miami’s Southern Cross Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Astronomical Society, and the British Astronomical Association. He is past director of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers.
           
In recognition of his contributions to planetary astronomy, Dr. Parker was honored by the International Astronomical Union in 1994, when an asteroid was given the name “5392 Parker”. In 2004 he was awarded the Oriental Astronomical Association’s Gold Medal for his work on Mars.

 

 

Howard Eskildsen

"Hooked on the Moon"

 

 

 

Howard grew up under clear, dark skies in the heartland of Nebraska where the Milky Way appeared as a great, shining veil across the summer skies. It lured him to study the stars, and as an adolescent he frequently obsessed over small things, like which one of "those two stars" was alpha Capricorni. Later he learned that it was a double star and they both were-sort of. Wow, that was a long time ago.

These days (40 years later) he likes to obsess about the moon with questions like why is the Western Chain on the east side of the moon and why is Mare Orientale (the Eastern Sea) is on the west side Or other things like: How old are the craters? Are there volcanoes on the moon? Do impacting objects ever skip over the moon like a rock on a pond? Why are some areas smooth and some pockmarked? What are those bright streaks on the full moon? What the heck is a swirl, a basin, a rille, a dome? And so on... He did eventually find some of the answers and is willing to share this and other amazing, mostly-true bits of information about the moon to anyone who attends his light-hearted presentation of "Hooked on the Moon."

When not practicing medicine, Howard has photographed the moon and the sun regularly since 2003 and has had photos appear on the Lunar Photo of the Day, Astronomy.com, Spaceweather.com and on the ALPO Solar Section website. Several have been published in Selenology, The Lunar Observer, and on the cover of the spring 2008 issue of the The Journal of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers. He has also written several articles and some poetry about the moon and the sun that have been read by almost a dozen people, including his mother who didn't really understand it, but was "really proud."

So, if you are interested in the moon, possess a morbid curiosity of the speaker, or if you are just plain bored, attend "Hooked on the Moon." Don't worry, you don't have to be "really proud" to attend; Howard will understand.

For more information on Howard, go to the following links;

http://alpo-astronomy.org/solar/starshootastro.html or The Citzen Scientist

 

Alan French

"The Mythical World of Telescopes"

 

We buy telescope based on what we know, but our "knowledge" of Telescopes can mislead us.  Some things we "know" about telescopes are wrong. Some knowledge is incomplete and therefore misleading.  Some myths have been repeated so often they are taken as true.  Advertising hype distorts our understanding of telescopes, either exaggerating or minimizing differences and problems.  While the internet can be a valuable source of information, it has also contributed to the mythical world of telescopes. This light-hearted talk will take a fresh look at telescopes, exploring what is true and what is myth.

Alan French has been a serious telescope maker and star gazer since 1965. He has made 11 Newtonians from 6" to 14.5" aperture, including a robust 10" f/9.5 Dobsonian.

He has been active in the Albany Area Amateur Astronomers since 1972. He has served as President, Newsletter Editor, and is now Vice President. He and his wife Sue are Star Party coordinators and have run regular Monthly public star parties for more than two decades.  He is Vice President of Dudley Observatory's Board of Trustees, and chairman of their Education Committee.

Although Alan loves telescopes, he also enjoys naked eye and binocular astronomy. He has been holding regular public constellation programs atLandis Arboretum in Esperance, New York.

This is his 13th Winter Star Party, and 2007 was his 39th pilgrimage to Stellafane, where he has served as an optical judge for several years. He has attended more than three dozen other conventions, and always enjoys checking out new telescopes.  He has previously spoken at Stellafane, Northeast Astronomy Forum, the Connecticut River Valley Astronomers Conjunction, Stella-Dela-Valley, Mid-Atlantic Star Party, Texas Star Party, Southern Star, and Winter Star Party.

He lives in upstate New York with his wife Sue, and two house rabbits.

Links to Sualan, the asteroid named after he and his wife:

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=17638

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=17638;orb=1

He spoke at WSP once before, in 1996.  On the speaker's schedule it was billed as "Astronomy vs Astrology," but the complete title was "The Trouble with Astrology - An Astronomer's Defense Kit."

 

 

 

Finger Lakes Instruments

Gregory Terrance

Jim Moronski

Gregory Terrance is one of the founding members of Finger Lakes Instrumentation and has been an avid lunar / planetary observer since first receiving a small refractor at the age of ten. After using film to photograph the planets with for many years, he switched over to CCD imaging in 1992. Not long afterwards he attended a class on how to build a CCD camera at a local collage and shortly afterwards joined a group of dedicated enthusiast to start FLI. In the past he has written a dozen articles for Astronomy Magazine and imaged from a dark site in Lima NY. These days he enjoys viewing solar system objects from his home in Rush NY.

Jim Moronski is one of the founding members of Finger Lakes Instrumentation. He start designing CCD cameras as a hobby 1992. The first astronomical pictures taken were that of the black scars left on Jupiter after the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. He graduated from Binghamton University with an MSEE in 1995. He remains active at the University as both a doctorate student and an adjunct lecturer for Power Electronics and Computer Networking. His professional career consisted of power supply design and embedded systems design. He joined FLI full time in 2005 as their software/digital hardware designer. He currently lives in the Binghamton, NY area where he recently opened FLI's second office.

For more information, visit the Finger Lakes web site at http://www.fli-cam.com/